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―Where did you live before?‖

―Kenosha I wasn‘t supposed to be a teacher My dad‘s company was down there

They manufactured electroless nickel, the stuff they use to coat hard drives, autoht out of grad school I did, for about three years As soon as my oldand ht h:again, butI guess you could say I got back at hi me out of Stanford‖

No adult had ever talked to me so frankly before ―You couldn‘t have stayed? At Stanford, I mean?‖

―Sure, but I didn‘t think I could at the tiar packet back into its little wicker basket ―That‘s one thing you learn as you get older Parents expect they‘ll have the same influence when you‘re thirty as when you‘re ten Soo Others don‘t like beco obsolete and do their best to convince you that you can‘t get along without them That‘s where I ht into my dad‘s idea that I couldn‘t s have worked out okay Anyone looking would think I have this perfect, fairy-tale life: reat wife But all that‘s surface stuff It‘s like watching someone on the water who you think is fine because there‘s no fuss, no screauy‘s about twenty seconds away fro‖

―But if you‘re rich,‖ I said, ―you could do anything‖

―It‘s not that simple‖

―Why not?‖

―For one thing, you can‘t turn back the clock For another, we‘re not talking just ot a wife and responsibilities There cos die‖ He shrugged ―Anyway, that‘s where I figure I can help people younger than me avoid my mistakes‖

I wanted to ask hi his dreaht I had an idea And now I knew so he had--in spite of his wonderful wife--Mr Anderson was unhappy He had regrets, things he wished he could do over I wondered if that included getting h about me What are your plans for the rest of the day? Other than doing your English thing‖

―Nothing,‖ I said

―Terrific‖ He grinned ―How do you feel about glass?‖

c

Glass turned out to be roohts, different shapes, different sizes, some antique and others contemporary, in a riot of colors The museu on a tiny peninsula off the northwest shore of Lake Winnebago, not far from Appleton I‘d never been past Fond du Lac, which was down south, and I‘d certainly never heard of a hts An informational display at the entrance said the museum had over three thousand, more than six hundred fro and so had all this hts since she was a kid

Most of the glass was beautiful and the art of how youMr Anderson found ht perched on a lone pedestal Suspended in the glass, honeybees hovered over four clusters of lass, their roots trailing in graceful swirls The bees were so lifelike their hind legs bulged with yellow pollen sacs But there was so odd about the roots and when I looked more closely, I realized why

―They‘re people,‖ I said to Mr Anderson ―The way he‘s positioned the legs and arms, they look like roots, but they‘re really bodies‖ (I hadn‘t wanted to say naked, but they were: a confusion of swelling breasts, round buttocks, large bellies, and, well Coht, Bobby?) ―Like that painter who does all those people tangled together‖

―Hieronyht about that before but now that you ood eye, Jenna‖

Afterward, we browsed the gift shop but didn‘t linger long They did have a paperweight by that artist who did the root people, but it was so astronomical, like over three thousand dollars Besides, I felt a little weird shopping with Mr Anderson Like it was too close, if you knohat IPeople who liked each other shared things: what they enjoyed doing, their interests, stuff like that